Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-09-02
A HARD PART TO PLAY.

AaAO ~ Wv tsts sounH AllsAS tstAo, "A
the wates and tbe sfrangest part Il il I
that we are none of US geniuses. Ant
yet We get on NJ three brothers IRE a
the present time starring either in tht
Aprovinces or In Ainefica; niy two elder
sistsrs.- having srsuiIsd AUD fretted theil
hour upon the stage, are married to re
spectacle City msak Sylils-Gascoixas
have acted Almost as loeg ~ canrsEnem
Der; the little ones. Kate and Dick, ART
still as school, 6sl when they leaSsS ths
first ;Hfng they do VII he TO 1ook out fbl
an engagement. don't think we are any
Of Us very mach in love with the profes
sion; but then why should we be, II
seems 70 snie vary Ahrd that An actor il
always supposed to be at high pressure
,',Esvate the ~ stass,,- ,l''oultitAte the
Masses" educate the popular tas,e'-
-these sre the sentiwents which -ars sup
posed TO be always h the actors breast
These are the sentefices which are forever
in pepple.S moQtAs.- NaE ] csnr imagine
why An actor more than any one else
ahouli be, constantly nn stills. l have
SEEN .celelnated musician enjoying a
game ef poker, and have heard him de.
Glare Ibat pQkeS wss fak preferable to
music. have seen great painter talk
ing 10 q city mAA absat stsche and shares
during a learned disquisition upon art,
and no one seemed scandaized. But With
an actor 1t Is di6ereat --UnSess he is per
petually aspiring it will not be forgiven
him that he is an actor
New We GAscoic cnes took things easily.
OF course there were some parts we liked
better thsnUehers, tare'se played every
fAing that cMDe in. our wAy-comedy,
fasce, meloafama Myeider sisters quit
ted the stage before they had much time
10 scistinEuisk thenselves. They were
each in turn, on their marriage, honored
with paragraph in the principal dramatic
papstS but no orie said Che stage had sus-
tained An irreparable loss, or the profess
sioH-was rubbed Of one Of its brightest Or
na uents.
,lwas following very .much.in my sis-
ter footsteps The critics always spoke
~e4tcf-me. IAeveq got . elstine in-my
life; but than hefoze The criticism was in
print could almost have repeatei word
for wurd the phrases that wpuld be ased:
Miss Gsscoigns wss painstaking and In
telligsnt n usual. The part was Gafe
in the hands Of that promising young ae.
tress, Sybil Gascoisne." With opinions
1 VI
salary WAS regularly paid; could always
reckon on n good engagement, and even il
my profession failed me there was Jack
te>fall back upon. And Jack was sub
stantial enough to fall back upon. with
no risk OF hurting ones self He was six
feet two, with broad square shoulders;
and arms-well. when Jacks arms were
round you. you fsit sBX youuiAn't want
anything else In the world. At least that 3
how felt, and I've heard lots of girls say
just tSesame. Jack ought to have heeu
in the Life Guards, and he would have
been. only . wealthy uncle offered to do
something for him, and Of course such an
Offer ~as not to be refused: and the
something" turned out to be that
Jack was to go as clerk into the uncle's
business. with q view to partnership, as
the advertisements say. Now, the bust
ness was not q pretty nor q romantic one
it had something TO do with leather
but it was extremely profitable, and as
looked forward to one day sharing all
Jsck's woPidly-sQods didnt gratnbls At
the leather. Not that Jack had ever yet
said Q word to me which 1 could c1nstrue
into a dss1nriRht ofsr He had looked,
certainly But then with eyes like his
there's no knowing what they may imply.
They were dark blue eyes, and his hair
WAS bright brown with a touch of yellow
in it and his mustache was tawny and
his skin was sunburnt TO q healthy Ted.
We had been introduced in quite the or
thodox way. We hadn't fallen in love
across the footlights. He seldom came
10 see me aot, but sometimes he'd drop in
to supper, perhaps on his way from q din
ner or to a dance; and il could make
him stay with US until it WAS too late to
20 90 ~tAne dance, what7a happy .giri /
used to be! Ny mother, with the crcum-
spection that belongs to mothers. told me
that he was only flirting, and that I'd bet
ter rafn my attention, to somebody else.
else! As if any one were worth
even looking at after Jack Curtis.
pitied eYeIy, ,Girl who was engaged because
she wasn't engaged to him. How could
my sisten be happy Resigned, content
they might be; but 70 be married and done
for. and aftervard to meet Jack-wen,
imagfhar1on failed me to depict the awful-
ness Of such a calamity.
IL wns quite time he spoke-there could
be no doubt Of that; although Jack Cur
tiswas % charming t~be,bound-by,t the
rules which govern ordinary nortals, still
/ could not help feeling uneasy and appre-
hensive. How eosld tsil how he CARVED
on at those gay and festive scenes in which
/ was not included, A proud earl's lovely
daughter might y yearning to bestow her
hand upon him. A duchess might have
marked him for her own. Possibly my
3salsus fearssRg9ersied the importance
Of the society in which he moved, but it
seemed tome that II Jack had been bid
den to 9. friendly dinner at Buckingham
palace. it was only what his transcendent
Qun!ities merited.
Well, there came night when we ex-
pecte,l Jack 70 supper, and he appeared
not. Only. in his place, q few lines to
Say. that le was going to start VI once for
his holiday A friend had just invited
hinf'to join him on his yacht. He added
in postscript, Il will write later" He
diInot write. Hours, days, weeks passed,
and not rord did we bear. '..,E
Its n break off," said my mother,
.He'd got tired Of MS all
md he thoaght this the easiest way Of let
ting US know ] told you there was an
understanding between him and Isabel
Chisholm; any one could see that with
AAniA ~ w
l turned away shuddering.
Terrible gales, - said my father, rust
ling the newspaper, comfortably in his
easy chair ''Great disasters among the
shipping. shouldn't wonder if the
yacht young What $ his name went in
were TO come to grief ''.s
l grew pale and thin and dispirited.
knew the ledies Of our company made re-
MARKS aipat me. Ono day1 overheard
two OF them talking.
..Shs never was much Of an actress,
and now she merely walks throul,h her
part They never had any feeling for art,
not one Of those Gascoigne girls"
: No feeling fer sri What low, mean,
TtefGl, wicked thing TO say. And the
worst az 1t was that It was SO true. re-
solved at once that would do something
desperate The hastpiece brought out at our
theatre had been frost. 1t had dragged
along until the advertisements wero able
to announce Fifteenth night Of the great
realistic drama" And various scath-
ing paragraphs from the papers were